American Muscle From Down Under

Letter From Detroit

Pontiac's bid to resurrect the GTO using the Australian-built Holden Monaro is the kind of ballsy move that former Pontiac General Manager Pete Estes and Chief Engineer John DeLorean would appreciate. They were the ones who went against corporate policy and dropped a 389-cu.-in. V-8 into the intermediate Tempest/Le Mans, borrowed a designation from Ferrari and created a whole new class of cars.

The obstacles to the success of the Monaro as a GTO are the specter of a previous Australian import — the poorly executed front-drive sports car known as the Mercury Capri — and traditionalists who can't picture the reincarnation coming from a country whose cultural contributions include Paul Hogan and Men At Work.

The new GTO benefits greatly from a small, highly motivated team at Holden that brought the Monaro to life from an auto show concept in just 22 months. The 5.7-liter front-engine/rear-drive car is derived from the 4-door Commodore, but has entirely different sheet metal from the cowl back. The company, long isolated from Detroit's product development fashions, has been able to craft a high-quality, good-performing coupe for what it costs GM to change its color palette from one model year to the next. Let's hope that GM's newfound fascination with Holden doesn't smother its ingenuity.

But can the Monaro be a true GTO? Having visited the factory in Adelaide, meeting the execs in Melbourne (they are, as Holden President Peter Hanenberger told us, all "petrol heads") and getting a taste of Australia's ongoing love affair with V-8-powered machinery, I'd say yes. For while the great front-wheel-drive experiment was going on in the U.S. between 1980 and 2000, Australia is the keeper of the flame when it comes to rear-drive, pushrod V-8 cars.

Furthermore, in creating the Commodore platform from the Opel Omega, Holden took a page from Pontiac's "Wide Track" playbook by adding a couple of inches to the beam of the chassis, which not only helped the car's stance, but enabled an easier installation of the U.S.-built LS1 V-8.

With close to 350 bhp and the availability of a 6-speed manual, the Monaro (when it goes on sale next fall), will offer GTO-plus performance because it has the ability to stop and turn far better than the original ever did. Even if traditionalists turn up their noses at the new model, I'm sure those who mourn the passing of the Firebird will certainly find solace in the new GTO.

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